I'm serving a full time mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I leave for the Texas McAllen mission on July 7, 2010 and will be speaking Spanish.

Monday, September 13, 2010

Okay SO ABOUT TEXAS!!!!!!!!!!

HOLA MADRE Y FAMILIA!!!!!!!

COMO ESTAN?!?!?! First I would like to apologize because things have seriously been crazy lately. I'm sorry about not being able to talk for very long in the airport :( I had such high hopes of being able to talk to you and Dad, Debbie, Sarah... but oh well that is just how it goes sometimes. I was thinking about it and Christmas is only 3 months away so it will go quick :)

First of all that is so sad about Garrett. I didn't know he joined the church! I was little when I knew him but I remember him as always being jolly.... I don't know if that is the right word but he was always so nice. Tell his mom that I will be praying for her and that the Plan of Salvation is real. She will see him again one day. It is all possible because of our Savior Jesus Christ. I have been soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo blessed this week through being able to talk to many many people about Him.

Your trip to Mt. Rainier looked GORGEOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And it looks like you are having tons of fun with the exchange students.

Okay SO ABOUT TEXAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My trainer is Hermana Villalobos :) She is AMAZING and so fun. She is from Mexico City and is fluent in Spanish, English, French and Italian. Hermana Villalobos is seriously an angel because she is so patient with my Spanish and all my mistakes haha and very encouraging so that is nice. I'll try and send a picture soon. She has been out for three months and I'm brand new so I was a little worried when President Trayner said that but things are going great! The Lord knows what He is doing so as long as we rely on Him, everything will work out.

My first contact:When we were driving to Laredo... we were at a gas station and we went to talk to this guy who was walking to his car. He shut us down pretty quick :) But it was good first experience!

Okay so yes Laredo is right here by the border! Next pday I want to go eat lunch at the river or something :) We are in the Laredo north area which is actually the rich part of town. The houses are all SUPER nice. A lot of the people work for border patrol. The people here are super nice. Even when turning us down contacting they are nice about it. Most people believe in Jesus Christ down here so that is nice. A lot of people say we can come back but then are never there... so I'm just trying to understand what I need to be doing better to explain this message and the eternal signifigance of it. I'm having a hard time learning Spanish. It is hard for me to switch from one house to the next - speaking Spanish here and then English there... It's like trying to quit smoking but then surrounding myself with smokers... hahaha okay weird analogy but it is hard. But I need to get better and be willing to be wrong all the time w/ grammer/words... because I am haha. Someday it will come!

SO the heat actually isn't as bad as I thought it would be. I think the Lord has been blessing me with the ability to work through it because people say to me "oh man it is SO HOT right now" and I'm just like hmmm it's not too bad actually. So definitly a blessing from God. Many people give us water here and I AM SO APPRECIATIVE... BECAUSE I SWEAT LIKE NOTHING BEFORE.

Okay so I'll tell you a story :) We were contacting my second day out here. I was with a recent convert. We were walking back to the car and we saw a woman bringing jugs of water into her house. So we went to go help her. She invited us to sit down and have a drink of water. The convert went to go get my companion who was at the next house. So I was standing there at the door talking to her BY MYSELF IN SPANISH. All I could do was ask random questions like "donde trabaja?" "cuantos son en su familia?" things like that and she was just smiling and giggling at my Spanish. She was so cute though. She said that the reason she let me/us in was that she felt prompted by the Spirit that I needed water. She was the cutest lady and I am so grateful for her kindness and charity for us. I hope we can teach her again someday.

Okay well I have to go BUT I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH AND I WILL WRITE YOU DEBBIE AND SARAH PROMISE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HERMANAN BRICKER

I PRAY FOR YOU!!!!!!!

MOM THANKS SO MUCH FOR THE FOOD!!!!! I NEEDED IT BIG TIME! I'M LEARNING THAT WE REALLY DON'T HAVE TOO MUCH MONEY OUT HERE!

1 comment:

We love you and miss you Mary! We will pray for you and your Spanish. We'll try to send you things to eat too. Maybe ask people what they love about Jesus Christ or what is the best thing about the Atonement or something like that. Just a thought.